If you’re nearing 10GB already though, you will need to archive your database following the steps below.

Creating your archive and starting over

The steps to archive your database consist of storing your information in the form of CSV files and then doing a hard reset on all of your data. Keep in mind that due to the reset, all of your preferences and settings, as well as company details and any customization will need to be re-entered/re-selected in your new database.

Before proceeding note the following:

Work Orders cannot be exported, so be sure to complete any open work order before archiving. You can also note down the details to re-create them as open work orders into the new database.

Sales Quotes can be exported but currently cannot be imported.

Attachments and Pictures cannot be exported.

Other than billing and shipping addresses, extra addresses cannot be exported.

Only your default pricing scheme can be exported. If you have multiple pricing schemes, you can change the default pricing scheme and then export your product details multiple times.

All settings in Personal, General and Print settings cannot be exported and must be set up again in the new database.

Export your data to .csv file

Some data can be exported to Excel, so we’ll save these files first.

Go to Main Menu > General > Export Data.

Choose your data type (each will have to be exported separately)

Click to export.

The data types you’ll need to export are Product Details, Stock Levels, Customer, Vendor, even Bill of Materials if you use it. If you have any open/uncompleted orders, you’ll want to export Sales Orders and Purchase Orders too.

NOTE: This only exports active entries. Anything that has been deactivated or cancelled will not be exported. If you would like to export deactivated entries, go to the appropriate listing (e.g product list for products, customer list for customers) and then change the “Show” filter to show “Inactive”. This will refresh the list to show all inactive entries. Right-click to export these entries.

Save your other information manually

Go to Main Menu > Options > Settings and note down the following information you have saved:

You may also want to export your custom documents, if you’ve not retained copies elsewhere. Go to Main Menu > Settings > Print Settings.

Click the Custom Docs icon.

Choose the template to export and then click the Export button on the right and choose where to save it.

Backup your data

Make a backup of your current database. You might save it as Archive2011-2013.ifi or something similar, just so you know what it contains.

Go to Main Menu > General > Reset All Data. You’ve already made a backup so you can easily restore to this backup at any time if you like.

Importing your information

Next, we’ll have to import the information into the newly reset database. First you should look through the exported files and trim them before importing, otherwise you’ll still run into the same problem of your database being too big.

Tips:

For your sales and purchase orders (which is the bulk of your archives) you should delete any completed orders in the file itself so you don’t import them in.

Be sure to always import your stock levels LAST. Assuming that your stock levels were correct when the export was done, importing it before orders and other information may cause changes to those levels.

Also be sure to back up your database before each new import (so you can reverse any changes you do not wish to keep).

Ready to begin? See below:

Once you’ve reset your database, set up your company information and settings. It’s important to do this first as some settings, such as your costing method, needs to be selected before importing data.

If you think you might need to archive again soon, it might be best to make a backup of your database now and name it “NewArchive” — this will ensure that you can jump straight into importing your data instead of having to re-enter your settings manually next time.

When you’ve set up your company information, you can import all your information back into inFlow from the files you exported earlier.

Go to Main Menu > General > Import Data.

Choose your data type and import using the trimmed files. (each will have to be imported separately)

Click Next and map the fields if need be, though inFlow should do this automatically.

Click to import.

Once you’ve done all your imports, you’re all set! If you ever need to check the data on previous history, you can just go to Main Menu > General > Restore Data and restore to the previous database to check your information.

Please contact us at support@inflowinventory.com if you have any questions about this process!